The present invention relates to a data output system, a mobile terminal, a data output method, a data output program, and a computer-readable recording medium storing the data output program, that are used to print out attached data of an e-mail in the case where, for example, an e-mail containing the attached data is transmitted to a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, a simple mobile phone (PHS: Personal Handyphone System; a registered trademark) or a portable information terminal (PDA: Personal Data Assistant), but the attached data is of a kind that cannot be displayed by the mobile device.
In recent years, sending and receiving e-mails via the Internet is one major information service that a wireless phone, such as a mobile phone, a PHS (simple mobile phone) or the like can provide as with a personal computer.
This is realized by a system in which a mail server is provided in a network center, and the mail server is set to receive an e-mail which has been directed to each wireless phone via the Internet on behalf of the addressee. Thereafter, the received e-mail is converted to mail data in the format unique to the system, and the mail data is transmitted to the phone.
Meanwhile, an e-mail essentially has a function to send document data, graphic data, etc., which were created using, for example, application software of the personal computer, by attaching them to text data as being the main body. This function has been widely utilized among personal computers.
On the other hand, the mailing system for a wireless phone has problems such that (i) attached data contained in an e-mail, except for those in the format unique to the wireless phone system, cannot be converted to mail data recognizable by the phone, and (ii) the wireless phone does not have an ability to manipulate the attached data.
Therefore, it is conventionally set that the mail server deletes the attached data before forwarding an e-mail to the wireless phone.
However, in order to save such attached data from deletion, an e-mail transfer device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 167534/1999 (Tokukaihei 11-167534 published on Jun. 22, 1999) has a system for printing attached data at the mail server.
In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 161457/1999 (Tokukaihei 11-161457 published on Jun. 18, 1999) discloses an information output device having a system in which a terminal device, when receiving an e-mail containing attached data that cannot be recognized by a phone, forwards the e-mail to a special printer capable of manipulating the attached data.
Nevertheless, the conventional print service system of the above publication 11-167534 has a problem that an addressee should actually fetch the printed document from the place where the mail server is located.
Likewise, the print service system of the above publication 11-161457 has such a problem that, because the whole e-mail is sent to the terminal device that can recognize the attached data, it unnecessarily increases communicating operation, thereby increasing communication costs. In addition, as in the case of printing at the mail server, an addressee should fetch the printed document from the place holding the forwarded e-mail.
Meanwhile, in recent years, the downsizing of terminal devices and the development of wireless communications technology have triggered the spread of a portable terminal device having a wireless communications mode. This enables its users to obtain and send data somewhere away from the home.
On the other hand, when one attempts to output such data as image data by printing for example, the portable terminal device is not provided with a print mode, or in many cases, there exist no such image forming devices as printers around, thus preventing output of the image data.
Accordingly, in order to solve the foregoing problems, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 146118/1999 (Tokukaihei 11-146118 published on May 28, 1999) proposes a data processing system capable of receiving print service which utilizes the portable terminal device in a place where an image forming device is provided. More specifically, the data processing system enables communication among a server having a recording medium, the portable terminal device and the image forming device via a predetermined communication medium, and provides a user with print service as follows: first, user information from the portable terminal device is registered on the recording medium to be connected to the server while approving the user by referring to the registered user information, or print data from the portable terminal device is directed via the server to the image forming device registered in advance, then an approval of the user, who has come to the image forming device, is performed to check whether the user is the registered one or not; thereafter, based on the user""s print data output request, control is performed to read the registered print data out of the recording medium of either the server or the image forming device, and charge such readout process, thus allowing the user to make use of a pay print service utilizing the portable terminal device at an arbitrary place where the image forming device is provided.
However, in the case of the data processing system, when a user in the office needs to send image data to a user outside the office, the user outside the office may not always have easy access to the image forming device designated in advance as the output terminal in terms of the distance. Thus, the problem is that the user outside the office is often required to come all the way to the designated place, that actually makes it difficult to readily obtain the resultant print. Moreover, there is another problem that it is difficult to output image data should there be no constant connection between the image forming device and the server over the communications line.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a data output system, a mobile terminal, a data output method, a data output program and a computer-readable recording medium storing the data output program, that enable printing of such attached data that cannot be recognized by some mobile devices, such as a mobile phone, by the nearest printer whereby broadband network connection is available, without increasing communication costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a data output system, a mobile terminal, a data output method, a data output program and a computer readable recording medium storing the data output program, that, when image data which should be printed emerges, enable a user carrying a portable terminal device with him/her to obtain a print of the image data as required by printing the image data at a place designated by the user.
In order to attain the foregoing object, a data output system according to the present invention includes: a data providing section for specifying data; and a data output section including a mobile terminal which the data providing section notifies of data information that is unique to the data specified by the data providing section, and at least one output device including a specified output device which receives the data specified by the data providing section from the data providing section so as to output it.
Further, in order to attain the foregoing object, a mobile terminal according to the present invention, which is adopted in a data output system, includes a data providing section for specifying data and a specified output device for receiving the data specified by the data providing section from the data providing section so as to output it, the mobile terminal being notified by the data providing section of data information which is unique to the data specified by the data providing section.
Further, in order to attain the foregoing object, a data output method according to the present invention includes the steps of: notifying data information from a data providing section for specifying data to a mobile terminal, the data information being unique to the data specified by the data providing section; sending the data specified by the data providing section from the data providing section to a specified output device which is selected from at least one output device; and outputting the data sent from the data providing section by the specified output device.
Further, in order to attain the foregoing object, a data output program to be executed by a computer includes the steps of: notifying data information from a data providing section for specifying data to a mobile terminal, the data information being unique to the data specified by the data providing section; sending the data specified by the data providing section to a specified output device which is selected from at least one output device; and outputting the data sent from the data providing section by the specified output device.
Further, in order to attain the foregoing object, a computer-readable recording medium stores a data output program to be executed by a computer, the program including the steps of: notifying data information from a data providing section for specifying data to a mobile terminal, the data information being unique to the data specified by the data providing section; sending the data specified by the data providing section to a specified output device which is selected from at least one output device; and outputting the data sent from the data providing section by the specified output device.
Additional objects, features, and strengths of the present invention will be made clear by the description below. Further, the advantages of the present invention will be evident from the following explanation in reference to the drawings.